Page 54 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice considered a little, and then said "The fourth."

"Two days wrong!" sighed the Hatter. "I told you butter would not suit the
works!" he added, looking angrily at the March Hare.

"It was the best butter," the March Hare meekly replied.

"Yes, but some crumbs must have got in as well," the Hatter grumbled:
"you shouldn't have put it in with the bread-knife."

The March Hare took the watch and looked at it gloomily: then he dipped it
into his cup of tea, and looked at it again: but he could think of nothing

better to say than his first remark, "It was the best butter, you know."

Alice had been looking over his shoulder with some curiosity. "What a
funny watch!" she remarked. "It tells the day of the month, and doesn't tell
what o'clock it is!"

"Why should it?" muttered the Hatter. "Does your watch tell you what year

it is?"

"Of course not," Alice replied very readily: "but that's because it stays the

same year for such a long time together."

"Which is just the case with mine," said the Hatter.

Alice felt dreadfully puzzled. The Hatter's remark seemed to have no

meaning in it, and yet it was certainly English. "I don't quite understand,"
she said, as politely as she could.

"The Dormouse is asleep again," said the Hatter, and he poured a little hot
tea upon its nose.

The Dormouse shook its head impatiently, and said, without opening its

eyes, "Of course, of course; just what I was going to remark myself."